Chinese investors set to establish home and personal care production hub in Kribi
These goods to be produced are explicitly intended to carry the “Made in Cameroon” label, positioning the park as a flagship base for locally made hygiene and cleaning products that can substitute imports and build export‑ready brands in Central Africa and beyond.
CAMEROON – Chinese investors have unveiled plans for a multi‑sector industrial park in Kribi, Cameroon, with household, personal‑care, and medical‑care (HPC) products at its centre.
The core of the Kribi Industrial Park will be a dedicated factory producing daily chemical goods for household, hotel, and public space cleaning, as well as personal‑care and medical‑care items such as disinfectants and hygiene products.
The project was presented during a meeting between the Chinese delegation and Cameroon’s Investment Promotion Agency (IPA), which signalled strong state backing and framed the park as a strategic pillar of Cameroon’s broader “Made in Cameroon” industrial policy.
IPA’s interim Director‑General, Boma Donatus, welcomed the initiative and reiterated Cameroon’s ambition to become an investment hub for Central Africa, highlighting Cameroon’s membership in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a key advantage for export‑oriented manufacturing.
He pointed to institutions such as the National Anti‑Corruption Commission (CONAC) and the National Investment Framework (ANIF) as mechanisms for improving the business environment.
The Chinese delegation, in turn, emphasized Cameroon’s favorable climate, abundant water reserves, and relatively fewer infrastructure bottlenecks compared with many regions in China, underscoring its potential for large‑scale agriculture and agro‑processing.
The Kribi Industrial Park is structured to evolve beyond HPC into several complementary sectors.
In agriculture, the plan includes large‑scale farming of fruits and vegetables, supported by cold‑storage and sorting facilities, to create a reliable supply base for both domestic consumption and agro‑processing.
A separate segment will focus on e‑cigarettes and related products, introducing Chinese manufacturing know‑how in electronic‑nicotine devices to build a higher‑value niche segment within the Cameroonian industrial ecosystem.
The park will also incorporate logistics and commercial‑service infrastructure, tightly linked to the nearby Kribi Deep Seaport, which will facilitate storage, distribution, and export of “Made in Cameroon” goods, especially HPC and agro‑processed products.
On the policy side, the IPA’s Director of Facilitation, Menga Jean‑Stéphane, outlined Cameroon’s existing investment‑incentive framework to the Chinese delegation, underscoring fiscal and customs benefits meant to lower entry and operating costs.
These include exemptions on import duties for equipment and machinery, VAT exemptions on imported equipment and on bank loans, and waivers on registration duties for land‑transaction documents, concession contracts, and leases.
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